Bible Training Center
Section 9.0 – Covenant Curses, Blessings & Discipline
introduction & articles
introduction
An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous will escape from trouble. – Proverbs 12:13
rewards, penalties and tough love
Three essential components make up the structure of a blood covenant. They are:
1. Curses
2. Blessings
3. Discipline
It may seem strange to find curses in a covenant that is founded in love. However, curses are required precisely because of the great love the covenanting partners possess for each other. The idea is that each is declaring through the curses imposed that the strength of their love is so great that they will gladly endure the most severe curses if they were to break the covenant. On the other hand, severe curses are intended to act as a deterrent against breaking the terms of the covenant.
Just as it is the desire of the covenanting partners that the curses be quite devastating, the blessings are to be equally glorious. The curses and blessings listed in Deuteronomy twenty-seven and twenty-eight are both dire and wonderful.
The blessings are for those who enter and keep the commandments of the covenant. They lead to eternal life. The curses are imposed on all who do not keep the
commandments, and make no mistake about it, they are intended to destroy those who disobey the covenant.
Discipline is the third leg of the covenant stool. This is a special case that applies to those who are in the covenant and unintentionally act in a manner which is not in keeping with the commandments or the spirit of the covenant. Should this person be placed in the same category as the one who has rejected the covenant in their heart and thereby continually transgress the covenant? That wouldn’t be fair. There must be some penalty for the errant behavior of those in the covenant. Just as an earthly parent disciplines an unruly child, so our heavenly Father disciplines those who are His by covenant. Discipline differs from curses in that they have different goals. The ultimate end of the curses of the covenant is the death of the law breaker. The goal of discipline is to punish for the purpose of raising the law breaker’s behavior o an acceptable level. Curses lead to death, but discipline leads to life everlasting.
God’s desire is that everyone would enter and keep the covenant He established in, through and by Jesus Christ so they would become partakers of eternal life.
Section 9.0 - Articles
Curses and blessings are an integral ingredient of blood covenant, as is discipline. Germane to a discussion of these things must be an understanding of the skeleton, the bones, of the covenant. The structure, or framework, of God’s covenant with those who were to become His people, began with the Ten Commandments. Later, laws, ordinances and statures were added to the commandments. Together, they make up the structural framework of this monumental covenant between God and Israel.
Covenants, in particular blood covenants, are mediated by God. He judges according to a system of penalties and rewards. A procedure for judgment is necessary because people are prone to go back on their word, even when the commitment is as solemn and binding as a blood covenant. God, the principal party of the covenant we are studying, cannot and will not break His word. He will always keep all of the commandments of the covenant. He is also the only One who can judge between the parties with total equity and impartiality.
The New Covenant is a better covenant built on better promises as the writer of Hebrews declares: “But now He [Jesus] has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.” (Hebrews 8:6) Key among the better promises of the New Covenant is freedom from the curses of the Law.